It sounds like the brigades, six of which will stand up eventually, will need more logistics staff and mortar expertise to up their game in supporting local Afghan forces, according to Army Secretary Mark Esper.

“You have to adapt everything for the mission,” he told Army Times on Friday, in a phone interview from Kabul. “Different theaters for different times, and in this theater you may have to re-adapt.” …

One of the big perks of creating a separate unit for security force assistance was that it would keep the pressure off of brigade combat team and division headquarters, which have been deploying independently for the train-advise-assist mission.

As it stands, conventional forces will continue to deploy in and out of Afghanistan, but the door is open in the future for SFABs to start replacing those rotations…